Gentle and Lowly, Chapter 18 - “Yearning Bowels”

This reflection is by Visio Dei member Neila Pippins.

Expecting judgment, he surprises them with comfort. Why? Because he had pulled them into his heart, and they cannot sin their way out of it.

This sentence from Chapter 18 of Gentle and Lowly really spoke to my heart.  God pulls us into his heart. We don’t just stumble into it, slip in unknown, or earn our way in.  He draws us in from his abundant supply of love and compassion, and once there, he doesn’t let us go—ever.

Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved with an everlasting love.”  Again and again, the nation of Israel forsook God, turned to idols, and sinned. Again, they faced judgement and suffering, only to once more turn their backs on God. They suffered the consequences of their sin over and over. Yet God did not forsake them nor forget them.  From the depths of his being, he longed for their return.

Jeremiah continues: “…my heart yeans for him; I will surely have mercy…I will remember him still” (v. 20). What a beautiful picture of God’s heart! If God does not give up on a stubborn, rebellious people, how much more does the heart of Christ have mercy for us? For we who have been drawn into his heart?

Christ’s heart is a reflection of the Heavenly Father’s. Can our sin, that has been washed under the blood, somehow pry open the door of his heart and have us cast out? No. When we sin, our fellowship with Christ is broken, but who he pulls us into his heart he does not let go. Israel lost their fellowship with God over and over, but not their place in the depths of his heart.

As a parent, I understand this…to the extent that my frail human mind can understand.  My heart overflows with love for my children and grandchildren, and with intense longing I yearn forall of them to give their hearts to the Savior, to have a real and personal relationship with him. I long to know I will see them in eternity. I love them, but I hate the sin that may keep them from responding to Christ’s call, or keep those who do know him from experiencing his fellowship.

But I have to remember that my own sin does the same thing to my fellowship. As Dane Ortlund said, God’s intense love flows down to us in our sinfulness.  He yearns for us to return and does not give up on us, his compassion and mercy poured out all the more in our suffering, in our failing. No matter how long we stumble, he will “remember us still.”